I'll admit, I'm very keen on one aspect of the cover in particular. The story follows the slow breakdown of the Ode clade, focusing on True Name as an example. While she has been continuing to strive behind the scenes to accomplish her goals of continuity and growth of the System, she's also started to get incredibly overworked. Her coworker Jonas has been overloading her with more and more tasks, feeding her less and less information, and, shortly after Launch, dumped a piece of information on her that he's now using as leverage to control nearly every aspect of her life. As a result, she's starting to crumble in terms of mental health and her stability, but the clade as a whole seems to be having more problems. End Waking wants to leave, Hammered Silver (the super nice, motherly member) disowns True Name's entire clade --- including May --- and the entire Bălan clade, etc etc, which leads to the aspect I'm keen on, which is to have the letters of the title start to pixelate (voxelate?) the characters (preferably just the Odists) as well as the environment. I feel it adds to the increasing tension throughout the series that now it's not just the foundations of the world, but of the characters, too.
**That said** I'm not a visual designer at *all* haha, so I absolutely defer to you on this. If you have specific ideas on how to execute this, cool! And if it just isn't going to work, here are a few other scenes that might:
* [#1](#1) --- Jonas seems to have gotten all that he wanted out of True Name, so the inciting incident of the story is him attempting to assassinate her. Her final instance is rescued by Ioan who brings her to the lake that has featured in other stories and on the back cover of *Nevi'im* to get away from the assassin. Realizing just how totally fucked she is, she's overcome by emotion and wades out into the water until it's nearly up to her hips and screams in frustration. This is my first choice, as I feel that it continues on from the overwhelming emotion on the cover of *Nevi'im* and also allows for further messing with the shape of the letters. Still, few more ideas below!
* [#2](#2) --- True Name agrees to let May merge down with her for the first time in 245 years. They kneel together on a bed, facing each other while True Name struggles to accept that many memories, May trying to be comforting as she can, while Ioan watches from the side. This is my second choice, as the rest of the book is more focused on emotions and how they tie in with memories, which is way more sedate than assassination attempts (plus, double the Odists that could be cut into by the letters). This would also work for a back cover, I figure.
* [#3](#3) --- True Name has been spending in the woods around the lake with her newfound desire for solitude, getting away from May and Ioan. What none of them realize, however, is that the sim isn't as private as expected, and one of Jonas's cronies (and True Name's ex), Zacharias, comes to visit and taunt her. He's a pretty standard red fox, dressing as dapper as Dear does and keeps an affected cane with him. True Name panics and messages May and Ioan, who arrive to confront Zacharias. May tries to taunt him in turn and he gets frustrated enough that he slaps her across the face. There's quite a bit to the scene, some of which may make for cover material.
* [#4](#4) --- Ioan talks with Jonas twice --- once on the balcony of eir home with Jonas sitting on a deck chair and Ioan standing nearby (it's winter, so probably snowy out), once in a pub. Both times, Jonas is insufferably smug and Ioan is frustrated/upset.
* [#5](#5) --- After the merge, True Name has picked up May's affectionate streak and leans on Ioan a couple of times, once on a beanbag, once on the steps of an A-frame tent, once on a boulder at the lake (these last two times, she's a spotted skunk, not a striped one; see description of Sasha). The mood is kind of cuddly but also super awkward because neither of them know what to do about it at all given their history with her as True Name.
* [#6](#6) --- May gives a monologue at one point, looking drunken and melancholic in a bar-setting on a stage
## Samples referenced
### <a name="1">#1</a>
Eventually, True Name's shoulders sagged and she stumbled down from the trees, Ioan and May both watching her, wide-eyed. She kept walking past the trail, down onto muddy beech, then out into the water. The short waves lapped up against her legs, soaking her slacks, and still she kept walking until it had made its way nearly up to her waist.
And then she screamed.
It wasn't a shout, no words were behind it. It was a scream of pure, unrestrained emotion, though whether anger, fear, frustration, or something else, ey could not guess.
Then she turned around and waded back toward the shore, stumbling once or twice, until she gave up and fell to her knees, water up to her waist once more. She beat at the surface of the lake with balled-up fists for a few seconds, growling and crying, before she finally stopped, slouching over until she had to catch herself on her hands.
May's fury, which until that point had been burning hot in her expression, was replaced by something more complicated. Anger, yes, but anxiety and fear as well. "True Name," she said, voice more under control than it had been. "What happened?"
"Someone is trying to take me out," she said between heaving breaths. "Trying to get rid of me."
[Source](008)
### <a name="2">#2</a>
Ey sighed and nodded, squeezing her paw before tugging eir hand free. "Right, right. I'll relax and leave you to the rest of it."
"Please stay, Ioan," True Name said quietly.
"Stay?"
"Yes. Please stay. I do not think it will be dramatic, but, well..." She frowned as though hunting for words. "You are a grounding person. Is that not what my counterpart on Castor said about Codrin? I do appreciate your presence."
Ey considered any number of responses ey could give before just nodding. If nothing else, ey didn't want to hold either of the skunks up from what would most certainly affect both of them more than it would em.
May forked and the new instance climbed up onto the bed with True Name, the two skunks kneeling, facing each other, amid all the blankets and pillows.
Both Ioan and True Name watched as the down-tree instance of May scrubbed her paws over her face vigorously for a moment, gave a shaky wave, and then quit. True Name winced and screwed her eyes shut, and the May who had knelt with her on the bed reached out and took the skunk's paws in her own.
"Go ahead."
It was still another ten seconds or so before True Name managed to relax enough to permit the merge to progress, and even then the only visual indication was a slow slump of her shoulders and a relaxing of the muscles of her face.
Ioan stuffed eir hands in eir pockets and did eir best to feel rooted to where ey stood, hoping against hope that ey could keep from pacing. May watched True Name carefully, eyes searching her features for what ey could not tell. She seemed almost frozen, breathing shallowly despite the relaxed set of her features.
And ey stood and watched them both.
The three of them stayed like that for nearly five minutes --- two skunks kneeling on the bed while ey watched from beside it --- before True Name moved again.
"Oh...oh, I cannot..." she whispered, and started to sag over to one side.
The other skunk shushed her quietly and helped her to lay out on her side before settling down with her. They curled together, still facing each other, nearly snout to snout and still holding paws.
Ey stood and watched. Then ey sat on the beanbag and watched. Watched and waited, though ey knew not what for.
It was more than an hour later before May forked beside em, took eir hand, and led em from the room. Neither of the skunks on the bed had moved or made a sound other than May asking True Name if she was okay in a quiet murmur at one point and the other skunk shaking her head.
[Source](029)
### <a name="3">#3</a>
"But yes," the skunk continued once she'd cleaned her plate. "There was some aspect of vengeance to my and End Waking's plan, but now I just want her away from Jonas. I do not know yet whether or not I like her or want her to stay in our lives in any way, shape, or form, but I do know that I want her away from him. I want her to live and to--"
Both Ioan and May jolted in their seats as a flash of adrenaline ran through them. A view of a forest, a lake shore, pile of wood not yet lit, and, sitting on a log across from that another furry. His facial structure was very similar to Dear's but where the fennec had wound up with that pristine white fur, he had ruddy orange except for the white on the underside of his chin and a dark apostrophe of fur on either side of his snout. Where Dear had wound up with almost absurdly large ears, his felt far more in proportion, along the lines of May's and True Names, though far pointier.
One thing Dear and this new fox did share in common was the snappy dress. Where Dear had wound up in a comfortable androgyny, though, the red fox had turned it into a prim masculinity that was, ey had to admit, quite effective. Black trousers, a white shirt and charcoal waistcoat, and a suit jacket. It was topped off with a simple tie and affected cane, currently being twirled lazily between black-furred paws.
It was just a glimpse, less than a second's worth of sensorium input, but enough for em to make a guess.
"Is that Zacharias? Wait! May! Oh, God damnit."
The skunk had already stepped away
"We have guests!" Zacharias said, standing up and dusting off his trousers. "I was not expecting guests. How cheeky."
True Name was still kneeling before the pile of wood in what had clearly become her firepit. "I am trying to imagine a world in which I should trust you enough to be alone with you," she growled. "And failing."
"Spicy, tonight, are we not?" He grinned, turning to bow extravagantly to Ioan and May. "Mx. and Mrs. Bălan, I presume?"
"We are not married," May said, growling nearly as well as True Name. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Oh, just popping in to say hi, is all," he said cheerily. "Zacharias, by the way. Nice to meet you, Ioan. My dear May Then My Name, it has been nearly two hundred years!"
"Well, hi," she said. "Now get out."
"Oh, I just got here, though!" He pouted, looking between the three of them. Then the smirk returned, along with a wicked glint to his eye. "Besides, what are you going to do about it, my dear? Bounce me?"
May frowned, but remained silent, arms crossed over her chest. None of them had the ACLs for such
"Right, I thought not. Well! Have a seat, I was just saying hi to True Name, but what's another two sets of eyes?"
Neither Ioan nor May moved.
"Well, fuck you, too, then," he said, laughing, and sat back down. "So, True Name, my little stink bug, how are you? Roughing it out here?"
The skunk glowered down to the striker and knife, quickly sparking up a coal in the leaf-litter tinder she'd gathered. She blew on it a few times before setting it in a pile of larger kindling. "I am on vacation. What the fuck does it look like?"
"Like you are roughing it."
She rolled her eyes.
"Look, why are you really out here?" Ioan asked. "Clearly it isn't just to say hi, and clearly you got access somehow. Got news from Jonas or something?"
"Very preceptive!" Zacharias said, grinning happily. "Just out here checking up on True Name to see if she has any further thoughts on our little gathering."
"Checking up on someone you tried to assassinate?"
"Oh goodness, not me! You can place the blame for that squarely on Jonas."
May laughed humorlessly. "Right, and poor Zack just had to sit by and--"
The fox was up in a flash and, with a back-handed swipe, slapped the skunk across the muzzle, getting a yelp out of her and a shout out of Ioan. "You do not have permission to use that name," he growled.
It took Ioan a few seconds to process what had just happened, but then fury welled up within em faster than any other emotion ey'd felt before. Had ey ever even felt fury before? A small part of em marveled at the unfamiliar feeling.
The rest was already swinging.
The blow never landed. Ioan found emself stumbling backwards several paces. Zacharias stumbled back in the opposite direction. Both of them shouted and worked to regain their footing.
The two new instances of May that had appeared, partially overlapping with where they had once stood, winked out of existence. "Yes, yes," she drawled, taking Ioan's hand in one paw to hold em back while the other rubbed at her muzzle. "We all know you are good at what you do. Get to the point."
With a huff, the fox stood up straighter, smoothing out his rumpled clothing. "Right. True Name. Are you coming tonight? If not, when shall we expect you?"
The skunk shook her head, still glowering. "I am not coming tonight, no. If I have been given the luxury of a year to meet," she said, tone dripping with sarcasm. "Then we will meet when I say we meet."
"If you say so." Zacharias was back to smirking. That hatred still bubbling within Ioan urged em to consider just how delightfully punchable that expression was. "Well, we will look forward to it, then, I suppose! And you two will be there as well, yes?"
"Your piece of shit boss hired me, didn't he?"
"That he did, Mx. Bălan! That he did." He turned to May, eyebrows raised expectantly.
"Yes, I will be there," she said. Her hackles were still up, free paw still bunched into a fist.
"And End Waking? Would not want the stanza to be incomplete, would we?" He grinned broadly to True Name, "And no, my little stink bug, you do not count."
"He has not answered yet," she said. She'd regained her composure, staring at Zacharias steadily. "We will speak with him. Tell Jonas message received and leave me the fuck alone."
He once more bowed with a flourish. "I live to serve," he said, sing-song. "Any other messages for me to relay?"
"Yes, tell Jonas to quit sending his most foppish lackeys," she shot back.
"But my dear! I am here specifically to drive the point home! You are in so far over your head that even 'little loverfox' is a part of your fate." He laughed gleefully. "Oh, it sounds so evil, does it not? Cartoonishly so! There is no way that I can even begin to talk about this without sounding like a mustache-twirling villain. You have done so well, True Name. It is simply time to step aside. We will see you soon, yes?"
True Name nodded. "Yes. Now, fuck off."
[Source](026)
### <a name="4">#4</a>
#### First time meeting Jonas
It wasn't until ey made eir way out onto the balcony to check the back yard that ey found anyone.
A tall, blond man sat in one of eir Adirondack chairs, cheek rested on eir fist as he stared dozily out into the yard. It had been nearly twenty-five years since ey'd interviewed Jonas, and ey hadn't seen him at all in the interim, but nothing seemed to have changed about him. He was still, as both May and True name had described him, perilously handsome, still polished to a gleam, every aspect of him still oozing confidence.
"Long time no see, Ioan." He grinned, nodding out to the yard. "Lovely place you've got. So few people keep those good, full-bore winters anymore, you know?"
Ioan lifted eir hand to bounce him from the sim.
Jonas lifted his hands, palms up. "Hey, it's okay. I'm just here to talk. Mr. Qián left after you and your partner did. Some dramatic stuff all went down all at once."
"I'll say," ey said, standing well back from him. "What are you doing here, Jonas?"
"Just waiting on you, mostly. I wanted to check and make sure you and May Then My Name were alright."
"Check..." Ey shook eir head. "Why would you care about our well-being? You just sent an assassin to our house."
"Only to tidy up loose ends," he said, leaning back in the chair again and using the well-shined toe of his shoe to knock a bit of snow off the railing of the balcony. "I trust you've stashed your skunks away somewhere safe?"
"My skunks?" All of the stress of the last forty-five minutes that ey'd been holding back around May, all that had been obscured by eir need to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, all of it came crashing down on em at once. "*My skunks?*" ey shouted. "Jonas, what the fuck? You sent a fucking assassin after True Name, sent them over to our house so they could hound May. What the hell are you even talking about? Of course I'm going to keep my fucking partner and friend safe if you're going to try killing them! Fucking...*my skunks*. Good Lord."
Once ey'd finished and was left panting again, Jonas sat up in the chair and grinned widely, clapping his hands. "Mx. Ioan Bălan! Such language! I didn't know you had it in you! Bravo."
